Rollie Chance Wrongly ID’d By NBC, CBS As Navy Yard Shooter

A man named Rollie Chance was initially identified as the Navy Yard shooter (or one of the suspected gunmen) by two major networks before he was found to be home and safe during the incident and in the aftermath.

The misidentification of Rollie Chance is reminiscent of early Newtown shooting reports, during which gunman Adam Lanza was initially and wrongly identified in several media reports as his brother Ryan Lanza, who was not involved with the Sandy Hook shooting.

Chance, a Navy lieutenant, was named as a confirmed Navy Yard shooter by both NBC’s Chuck Todd as well as CBS. Todd tweeted out the man’s name in connection with the shooting, only to delete the tweet later and hastily attempt to explain the decision on the microblogging service.

Interestingly, it seems that similar reasons for the confusion in Newtown caused the reporting of Chance’s name in relation to the shooting in Washington this morning.

At Sandy Hook, an ID card believed to have been carried by Lanza bearing his brother’s name was fingered in the initial misidentification.

Similarly, Chuck Todd says, Rollie Chance’s ID was located near the body of the dead gunman, who has yet to be identified officially.